The Purpose

During the Korean War, my mom's dad served as a U. S. Army drill sergeant. This often involved making life unpleasant for the raw and undisciplined recruits under his charge. One of the punishments he favored was issuing difficult tasks that had no purpose. For instance, he ordered one rebellious private to dig a hole six feet deep and six feet wide, and bury a newspaper in it. When the soldier finished that job, my grandfather barked at him to go dig the newspaper back up--he hadn't finished reading page 3. At the end of the day, you had an empty hole, a pile of dirt, and one very exhausted and demoralized young man. But that's about all that you had. There was no real purpose.

Peter wants us to know in these opening verses that he is not advocating such pointless toil. He knows that he is about to call us to strenuous, daily effort in the Christian life, in 1:5-10. "Make every effort to supplement your faith" with a series of godly character traits, he will say (1:5). No coasting permitted, Peter insists. You should be continuously "increasing" in these qualities (1:8). "Be diligent" to the end, he urges (1:10). It sounds like a lot of work! Why expend all this energy? After all, there are other voices in our ears telling us not to worry about any of this (ch 2). If we don't understand the goal of Christian growth, we will lack the motivation to keep going. This is why Peter casts a grand vision for our calling in the Christian life.

We begin our lives mired in "the corruption that is in the world through sinful desire (1:9)." Like Christian in John Bunyan's classic story Pilgrim's Progress, we were at home in the "City of Destruction," never realizing the danger that we were in. But instead of sweeping you away in judgment, God in his great love chose to save you before you were ever thinking about him (that's what the word "election" means in 1:10). You became aware of God's love for you at a particular moment in your life, when you heard the message about Jesus, and you responded with repentance and faith. This is the moment God "called you (1:10)" in a personal and powerful way--just like when Jesus called Peter's name on the shores of Galilee, and he left everything to follow him.  

When you answered God's call of salvation, something wonderful immediately happened to you: you were "cleansed of your former sins (1:9)." All of that corruption and sinful desire that was in you--God totally washed it away through the finished work of Jesus Christ! He has made you clean before himself! But that is just the start.

God did not choose you, call you, and cleanse you to leave you enslaved to the world's corruption. No, God has a magnificent destiny prepared for you. He has called you "to his own glory and excellence (1:3)." God intends for you--yes, you!--to reflect his own beautiful character. By the time he is finished, you will hardly recognize yourself: you will be "glorified (Rom 8:29)." You will shine like the sun (Matt 13:43). You will be just like Jesus, conformed to the image of God's beloved Son (1 John 3:2-3; Rom 8:18-29). It reminds me of something C.S. Lewis once said: that if we met the most ordinary Christian in their finished state, we would be tempted to worship them. That is the vision. That is the goal. That is the journey you have begun.

That is why we "make every effort" to grow in godliness now: it is not without purpose!

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Article by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church